Final answer:
The statement is true; sharecroppers paid their rent in the form of a portion of their crops. This system was prevalent in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that sharecroppers were tenant farmers who paid their rent with shares of their crops is true. Sharecropping was a system that came into widespread use in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era, following the Civil War. In this system, tenant farmers would rent small plots of land from a landowner in exchange for a portion of their crop yield. This arrangement often made it difficult for sharecroppers to earn enough to break free from a cycle of debt and poverty, as they would owe a substantial part of their harvest to the landowner.